Evil's of the Mind
by StormBlitz
Summary: Government agents were not trained to handle this. They were trained in the art of stealth and cunning. Not the art of taboo love.


He thought nothing in this world would have been enough to drive him to insanity. He had been through hell, its distant cousin, and back again shoving off every burden he had walked in with. He had survived Raccoon City, he had taken down an entire parasite infected cult, and had even managed to tolerate the girl who had put them in that situation, all without breaking a sweat. He was pretty much immune to any sort of anomaly the world could throw at him.

But this…this…this really just wasn't fair.

The figure, the very young and very male figure, in his bed muttered something incoherent. His tongue darted out to lick pink supple lips as his brows furrowed in his sleep. After a second a smile found its way to his lips and a small, happy sigh brought him back to joyful thoughts. Leon had to turn around for fear what he would do if the child were to do that again.

Well child was a bit unfair. The boy was seventeen. He was still a teenager, but was very much legal in many senses of the word. Including the definition that pertained to the age of consent.

And it was at this point that Leon nearly pulled out his hair in utter frustration. He had to stop thinking like that. Thoughts like that were dangerous and would only get him into trouble. He was 27 years old, ten years this boy's senior, and he was an American Secret Service agent. This was not the type of behavior he should normally be exhibiting. Then again, these were not normal circumstances and this was no normal boy.

_Link._ He reminded himself. _He's not some random guy I found on the street. He's…_

What he was, what he meant to Leon, was the question indeed.

Professionally Link was an assignment. He was found unconscious carrying strange and somewhat primitive weapons on his person in an abandoned laboratory in an underground maze. The area had been mostly destroyed, its creators having fled from whatever danger had presented itself, and it was only by chance that the recovery team sent to the area had found him amongst the rubble. He had been heavily injured at the time, but no one was quite sure how to treat him. He didn't seem to be particularly dangerous, just a bit shy, and a bit cautious. It was the ears that really had people on edge. Most thought it was a mutation, something akin to the Las Plagus. The fact that he was dead silent did not help matters much.

Leon had been called in to possibly identify what could be signs that the parasites had leaked out, or otherwise recreated in some form. When the ex cop arrived, the young boy had been seated on a cold steel examination table, legs folded Indian style with hands hanging onto his feet nervously. No one had given him a spare set of clothes and the poor guy seemed hungry and dehydrated. His eyes shifted every time something moved, as if he were trying to find something that might hurt him.

When he laid eyes on Leon he seemed to relax. In his deep blue eyes was a look of longing, a longing to be understood, and a sort of longing to have his freedom back.

Leon asked him his name.

"Link." He said softly, and most in the room were surprised to hear him speak. His voice was serene, almost melodic, and reminded Leon of fonder memories back when he was a naïve recruit in the academy.

He asked how old Link was.

"17."

Leon could believe that. He looked young, innocent, and vulnerable. There was no way he was any older than what he claimed to be.

Leon asked where he came from.

"Hyrule."

He asked where that was.

Link bit his lip and looked around the room. "I don't know. I don't even know where _this_ is."

Leon asked him if it was alright to have him checked out by a doctor. Link seemed positively terrified by the idea, so much so that Leon had to promise to stay with him until the examination was through. Doctors poked and prodded for signs and clues linking to any kind of disease. Very gently; otherwise Leon would catch a look of panic from the teenager and stop the procedure immediately. The boy was clean.

Leon recalled making a comment about Link's ears a short time after that. Link smiled slightly and told him that they were somewhat of an oddity where he came from as well. Leon told him he thought they were cute. Where and how that managed to leave his mouth, Leon still has trouble remembering to this day. All he knows is that when he tried to formulate some type of response, Link had smiled widely with shimmering blue eyes.

After that Hunnigan demanded that Leon be the one to watch over the boy until plans could be made about what to do with him. It made sense. Link was most comfortable around him and no one else seemed to want to treat him very well. Plus he was polite, intelligent, eager to help; he was practically the perfect house guest. Leon didn't mind. Professionally he had no complaints.

But somewhere down the line Link stopped being just as assignment. Leon was unsure whose fault that was exactly. It might have been Link's for being too good of a house guest. The boy was never intrusive, left Leon alone when the other craved solitude, and even cooked the meals around the house. For which Leon was very thankful because Lord knew he was a complete mess when it came to anything that involved the kitchen. Plus he was easy to talk to. He didn't expect much of anything from his host, except maybe the response to the question, "What would you like for dinner?"

But he never spoke about himself. Not his homeland, his friends, nor his family ever became topics of conversation. Link was either pretending they didn't exist, or trying to forget all about them because it hurt too much to think of them. Leon should not have felt the need to pry. It was none of his business and he should have known better than to wonder about them. Yet that did not stop him from inviting Link to the shooting range with him one day, with the intention of getting out any information about the boy's background that he could.

Link had surprised him. At first he had been very sloppy with Leon's various fire arms. He didn't know how to work the things, and a few bullets had managed to accidently land in walls they should not have even come near, but after a few hands on lessons Link turned out not to be so bad. His posture was good, and his ability and accuracy when hitting targets was incredible once he got the hang of the weapon he was holding. He had even managed to show Leon a thing or two while simultaneously making it so that Leon enjoyed his company more. So Leon invited him along more often, to more and more of his favorite places, until it was impossible for one to leave the house without the other. Link had now become his friend

How he had managed to go from friend to something else was entirely beyond Leon. Though if he had to take a guessed he'd say it was probably his fault. And if he had to time it, he would pinpoint the beginning of all his confusion down to one single night.

* * *

There had been a storm, an unusually rough storm for the season, raging on at about midnight on a Saturday. He had not been so affected by the weather, even though he could hear it clearly from his position on the couch. (He just _had_ to be the gentleman and give his bed over to the younger man) The over lit lightning and crashing of thunder through the sky did not manage to awaken him. But it had managed to wake up Link, and the teenager had been so scared he had run downstairs to Leon's side.

He would admit that it surprised him. Opening his eyes to see Link clutching the cushions so roughly his knuckles were chalk white, eyes shut so tightly Leon was sure they could never be opened again. The agent's mouth opened and closed several times, attempting to try and concoct a question that could answer what was going on, when another burst of thunder crashed through the widow. Link had suddenly moved next to him on the couch, and was then clutching onto his arm as though letting go would ensure his death.

"Link-what-why…"

Link's eyes were still clamped shut, and he almost looked ready to cry. Whatever had brought him down there was serious enough to cause an emotional breakdown.

"The storm." Leon heard the younger one whisper. It was so silent Leon almost missed the message entirely.

But somehow his ears were able to strain themselves just enough to get a clear cut picture. "Are you afraid of storms?"

Link hesitated, but he nodded a moment later. Leon wanted to question more, but then another lightning bolt shot out, followed by another crash of thunder, and Link was holding onto to his arm so tightly that Leon was sure it would fall off soon.

"It's okay." He tried to reassure the young teen. "It's just a lot of noise and lights. Nothing to be afraid of-"

The storm outside raged on, harder than before, as though to contradict whatever comfort Leon was trying to offer. He thought he should try again, but there was a part of him that knew it was pointless if the weather outside continued at this pace.

"You can't just stay up all night." The elf barely got enough sleep as it was. Even when Leon was home for the night Link still felt uneasy with his surroundings, and he never felt quite comfortable enough to let his guard down. The lack of a decent good night's sleep didn't appear to affect him too much, but Leon did see significant problems in the way the boy carried on through the day. If he pushed himself any further into bad sleeping habits he'd be a walking zombie by the end of the week. And Leon had had enough with Zombies when dealing with Los Illuminados.

"I can't sleep. Not with the weather this bad." Leon had probably opened his mouth to argue, but Link beat him to it. "It makes me…remember."

"Remember what?"

The teenager didn't answer right away. He took a moment to bite his lip, an action that Leon had found very interesting that night even though he had seen it many times before. Link then seemed to find his lips too dry and a pink tongue darted out to soak them a bit. That, too, took Leon's attention to a very interesting place despite his protests to stay right where it was.

"I don't want to talk about it." Link's tone had been so unusually defiant Leon had been taken back a bit.

Sure the boy was a teenager, and the small firm frame and childlike qualities made that very apparent, but Link never acted like one. He was always so mature, so wise beyond his years, that at times it hard to remember that he was still so much like a child. He was not an adult.

"Then what do you want to do?" But Leon would still give him the ability to decide like one. "Do you want to stay up all night?"

Link solemnly narrowed his eyes, but ultimately shook his head.

"Do you want me to bring the mattress down here?"

Again the elf shook his head.

"So you want to go back upstairs?"

Link shook his head again. Honestly, by this point Leon was confused because the kid was running out of options. "Then what do you want to do?"

"Can't I just sleep here?"

"The couch is too uncomfortable. You'd never get a wink."

"Then let's go upstairs. The bed's big enough for the two of us to share."

Leon nearly blew a blood vessel. If he hadn't been paying attention before, he certainly was now. "What?" It did not matter how innocent Link had meant for that to sound. The idea in itself was a tad bit too dangerous for Leon to deal with.

Link got a little closer to Leon, rubbing his clothed chest against Leon's arm in a way that made the agent notice just how firm Link's upper body was. Not bad for a kid his age…and Leon was going to stomp that idea down before it got any funny ideas.

"If you're next to me I won't get as scared." And now the elf was drawing in a little closer to get his point across, and what pretty blue eyes he had, and such smooth skin, and what a pretty face…and Leon was _**not thinking that!**_

"Won't you feel awkward with me sleeping next to you?" Because Leon sure as hell knew he would.

"Not as awkward as you'll feel with me sitting here all night."

The kid had a point. In fact their current position, Link gazing intently into Leon's eyes, arms still wrapped around Leon's, with the two of them inching closer by the second, was already uncomfortable enough as it was. Still, there was a part of Leon that really did not want to adhere to his friends 'innocent' little request.

Link, perhaps knowing he was about to be challenged, brought out the worst weapon he could have ever obtained in the history of mankind. The Link Eyes.

It was a technique somewhat similar to The Puppy Dog Eyes, yet somehow much more effective than any of its larger cousins. It depended on three key features. One, an innocent face that could purse it's lips into a pout that was half frown and could tremble ever so slightly, just enough to get the point across. Two, a small nearly nonexistent whimper that simply screamed; 'Pwease do what I ask, pwease?' And three, a pair of large deep colored eyes that could quiver as much as the formally mentioned lips, and gather small droplets of tears as their sides on a whim.

It was the deadliest trick Link had in his arsenal, and, unfortunately for Leon, it was the easiest for him to pull off. Leon had never been able to say no to it, and this night had been no exception. So Leon agreed to share his bed that **one**night to help Link feel better about whatever it was that was haunting him. The elf had smiled victoriously, and a big smugly, before leading the older blonde into his bedroom.

* * *

He had to admit, it had felt rather good to lie down in his own bed again, and Link was a pretty comfortable bedmate if you took away any indecent innuendos. So he _may_ have not fought all that hard when Link asked him to repeat the sleeping arrangement, and he _might_ have allowed the situation to become a permanent part of their living together. But in his defense he had no idea what would happen.

How was he supposed to know that he would soon come to look forward to going to sleep because the young blonde would always be there? How could he have known that he would soon appreciate the fact that Link was apparently an avid cuddle lover in his sleep? How could he have ever anticipated his mind falling into the gutter whenever Link did something particularly cute or adorable? And how the hell was he supposed to know about those dreams crawling out of the back of his mind at night?!

He took in breath, allowed his mind to come back to the present, before pondering what to do next. He had been called out for a mission earlier on that day and had come home late. It seemed Link had gotten tired of waiting for him and just made the agent something to eat before coming upstairs to sleep. Leon had eaten, and his compliments went to the chef, and now all he had to do was figure out what to do about sleep. He wanted to crawl in next to his young friend, but he had been away from the other for almost fourteen hours straight and had missed him something fierce. He didn't know if he would be able to keep his hands to himself.

He could always go downstairs. But that couch was so uncomfortable…

A small noise alerted him to the figure sitting up on the mattress, rubbing his tired eyes in a large t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. The shirt was a little too big, revealing a perfectly colored shoulder, bare of the cloth that was supposed to cover it.

_Bad mind! Sit!_

"Leon?" A tired voice called out to him. "When did you get here?"

Leon was able to focus enough to answer properly. "I just got in a second ago."

"Did you eat?"

Leon nodded. "It was good. I didn't know you could make barbecued pork."

Link waved off the praise. "Well I never tried before." He broke off to yawn. "This was a first attempt."

Leon raised an eyebrow. "You used me as guinea pig?"

One mischievous blue eye opened to smile at the man in front of him. "You're still alive aren't you?"

Leon could not stop his hand from reaching out and ruffling the younger ones hair. "Brat."

Link laughed and shook off Leon's hand with no trace of malice. "Do you have to write up a mission report for the bosses?"

"Yeah, but I can always do it tomorrow." Three in the morning did not sound like a good time for rewriting the annoying tidbits of his day.

"Then come to bed."

Leon had to force himself not to gasp. "Huh?"

"Come. To. Bed." Link sounded like he was talking to a seven year old. "You're tired right? Just come here and go to sleep. Lord knows you need it."

That wasn't all Leon needed right now. But it would look odd if he were to suddenly rush to the bathroom for a shower at three AM.

"Come to bed."

Now that he thought about it, he really should decline. He should just sleep elsewhere until he no longer had these strange feelings towards his young charge.

He should, "Move over." But he knew he was too far gone to do what he actually should.

Link complied obediently, quickly scooting closer to the wall to give Leon some room to move. The American sat down and kicked off his heavy leather boots. He then chucked off his jacket, tossed it to the side somewhere, before he began undoing various claps and straps that held his different brands of firearms. They soon joined the jacket on the floor. His handgun went underneath the bed, there if he needed it in a quick pinch. He used to keep it under his pillow, but Link's hands had a habit of wandering in his sleep, and Leon did not like the idea of it accidentally going off when the two of them were asleep.

When he decided that he was comfortable enough, he laid down on his side of the bed, relishing in the feeling of the soft mattress on his tired body. He turned on his side and motioned for Link to lie back down with him, and all the while his brain shouted at him to knock it off. The elf instantly snuggled into Leon's side, curled up like a pleased kitten against the American's firm chest. Leon draped an arm over Link's side, gently placing his chin over Link's head, waiting for the other to fall back asleep. The elf's soft breathing, coupled with the steady rhythm of his heartbeat, was by far the best lullaby anyone had ever created.

"Leon," The teenager said sleepily. "Before I forget," He yawned. "Chris called."

"Really?" Leon spoke softly, afraid that if he raised his voice he'd ruin the current mood. "What did he want?"

"He wants us to go down to the base tomorrow. Says there's something he needs your help with."

Leon could not help but smile at his tired bed-mate. The kid really was too cute for his own good. "We'll talk about it in the morning. Let's just rest for a while."

Within seconds both boy and man were in the midst of sweet dreams. The older of the two enthralled with images of the other, and for now that was okay. So what if Leon was dragged back into Hell for this? If he got to hold on to Link until then, well, then landing in a fiery pit was fine by him. Let him deal with the punishment in the afterlife, just so long as he was able to taste the forbidden fruit down here on Earth.

* * *

**AN: It's official. Fang is going to hate me. But oh do I love teasing him by slashing his favorite characters. It's his own for not posting anyway. This will be a two shot dealing with a vague idea that's been in my head for a while. I might make it into a story. I'll see how it goes. **


End file.
